“Shackleton had always insisted that they ultimate responsibility for anything that befell us was his and his only. But until then I had not understood the painful seriousness with which he viewed his relation to us. My view was that we were all grown men, going of our own free wills on this expedition, and that it was up to us to bear whatever was coming to us. Not so Shackleton. His idea was that we had trusted him, that we had placed ourselves in his hands, and that should anything happen to us, he was morally responsible. His attitude was almost patriarchal.”